Tuesday, March 29, 2011

So much for my pact to keep up with this blog. Oops. Since my last post we've had our 9 month appointment, Matthew has gotten much better at crawling, is getting into everything and we reached the final straw with his sleep antics.

First, the 9 month stats. Our big boy is 20 lbs 4 oz and 29 inches (though the nurse always seems to cut him short and I'm convinced he's more like 30 inches). Everything else is well with him. No new teeth, so were still at a count of 8 tiny sharp teeth.

His crawling is very good. We've got the baby gates installed and the outlet covers. Good thing too because he just discovered the outlets yesterday! He loves going into the kitchen and playing with the garbage can for some reason. Ew. So I've resorted to blocking the entrance of with his playpen and exersaucer. We're considering buying pressure gates for this, but hoping to teach him the word "NO". Good luck with a 9 month old right?

Oh the sleep antics. We tried everything. Matthew has been waking up every 1-3 hours every night for the last 3+ months! I AM TIRED! We tried white noise: fan and humidifier. We tried music all night: Rockaby Baby Bob Marley. We tried leaving my t-shirt in with him. We tried a soother (he chews it). We tried giving him a "lovey". We tried graduated extinction but never got past the patting stage because it didn't work. We tried a really early bedtime and scheduled naps. We tried a bottle at bedtime to "top him off." I read a bunch of baby books, scoured the internet and asked all the friends and family I could find. The answer was always the same: let him cry it out. I never wanted to try this. I didn't think I'd reach my breaking point. But after 3+ months with no sleep and a baby with bigger bags under his eyes than me, we decided to give it a go. Getting him to sleep is usually not the issue. It's getting him to STAY asleep.

The first night we put him down and he woke up screaming at 1 am. We went in, laid him down and patted his back for a minute, then walked out and waited for the screaming to begin. We went in 5 mins later, 10 minutes later, 15 minutes later, 20 minutes later. This went on for 2 hours before he fell asleep. Then he was up for good at 5. The next night it was the same 2 hour battle, only at 2 am. Then it was 1 1/2 hours at 1, 1 1/2 hours at 2, 2 hours at 4 which turned into up for the day at 6, 1 1/2 hours at 5 which turned into up for the day, 1 1/2 hours at 3 and finally 40 minutes at 2 and then HURRAY SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!

That takes us all the way up to tonight. It's 1 hour past his bedtime and he's still up. We're trying a bottle to push him over that sleep edge. Here's hoping we've turned a corner and we've solved Matthew's sleep problem. But I'm the pessimist in this family and I think it's going to be another week long fight before we've finally licked this.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

I was getting tired of my old business blog, and I really wanted something cleaner, neater, and well, prettier. It took me two days and lots of help from my techie brother, but I did it. I made a new blog. Have a look, tell me what you think, and become a follower!

Friday, March 4, 2011

Ruh roh. Matthew has been working on this bum to hands and knees and back again thing for a while now. He didn't seem to be getting anywhere. That is until this morning. He suddenly figured out how to move his legs and now he's EVERYWHERE! We have no gates, cords all over the place, knitting and crocheting and a table full of junk. Time to babyproof! Guess what we'll be spending our weekend doing. I'm excited, but now I'm in for the "real" work. I have to chase my baby around all day now. Guess it's a good way to lose some pounds eh?

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

I should have known that posting about our sleep success would come back to bite me. We had 2 really really good nights, but it all went downhill from there. Two nights later he was waking up in the middle of the night SCREAMING. I discovered the culprit: really hard, painful poops. Poor baby. He had no idea what was going on, but I suspect that something about peas and apples made for a bad combination. We have since stopped with the apples and substituted apricots. His poops are better, but he still isn't sleeping and he's decided he doesn't really like eating anymore either. Hmph. Last night wasn't TOO bad. He only woke up at 10:30, 3:30 and 4:30 before getting up for the day at 7:30. Hey, I'll take it. It's better than waking up every 2 hours.

As for the eating, I'm trying to change it up for him. I'm starting to give him some finger foods: bits of turkey and smushed peas. He had fun trying to put them in his mouth and was successful a few times, but he gets bored easily and gives up. So not much food is actually getting into his tummy, which I'm sure doesn't help him sleep. Today I tried a whole piece of a banana and some Cheerios. The banana was, well, messy and after a few bites (one of them a bit too big), he gave up. The Cheerios were fun and challenging and I think he ate a few, but again after a while, he was just throwing them around and playing. Still trying to figure out what the best timing is for his meal times. So here's my question to you: when do you feed your child under 1? Before milk? after milk? at the same time? Give me your best tips for getting kiddo to eat.